The 42nd annual Melbourne Fringe Festival returns this October with a veritable buffet of over 470 diverse events taking place across Melbourne.
Pushing boundaries across performing arts, music, dance, cabaret and many more wild and wonderful categories, Melbourne Fringe will have audiences entertained, provoked and astounded. With so much on offer, the Australian Pride Network takes a look at 12 events worth checking out:
Apocrypha
Darebin Arts Centre: 11 – 19 October
Enter the world of Apocrypha, the new ensemble show from circus provocateur Mitch Jones (AutoCannibal, Slava’s Snowshow, Circus Oz) that journeys beyond the canon of mainstream culture. See the tightrope walker dance along rusty chains, while the acrobat spins hula hoops which blacken his body with painted scars, and contortionists balance precariously on weeping bluestone boulders. Inspired by cult cinema, erotic fiction and the work of Jean Genet, this stunning new work of alt-circus explores the limits of our bodies, finding moments of beauty among the outcast and the unholy. With a jaw-dropping cast including Adam Malone, Rindi Harradine, Kristian Santic and Chloe Fazikas, Apocrypha is a surreal exploration of desire and counterculture that will linger long after the final curtain falls.
BAD BOY
fortyfivedownstairs: continues to 16 October
Following a sell-out season of RUNT, multi award-winning collaborators Susie Dee, Patricia Cornelius and Nicci Wilks present a searing new work tackling the enormous issue of misogyny and domestic violence. It’s time to take on this most difficult of subjects using the power of the metaphorical, language that is both grungy and poetic, and the visceral, often surprisingly comedic physical strengths of performer Nicci Wilks. Written by Cornelius and directed by Dee, Wilks will inhabit the character of BAD BOY – a female actor openly playing a male role, with the gender inversion heightening this sharp examination into male behaviour.
Dolly Diamond’s Rather Large Variety Hour
The Ukiyo – So Soiree Fringe Garden: 19 & 20 October
Award-winning, sharp-tongued cabaret diva Dolly Diamond returns to Stonnington for a limited run of inimitable Dolly-style cabaret. With some sugar, spice and only a little bit of nice. After a hugely successful run in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Midsumma Festival in 2023, this UK born Australian icon brings Dolly Diamond’s Rather Large Variety Hour to Melbourne this October. Dolly will be joined onstage by Melbourne’s finest talent and rising stars because she’s never afraid to shine the spotlight on others, just as long as it comes beaming back onto her.
Fountain Lakes in Lockdown: A Drag Parody Play
Alex Theatre St Kilda – Vass Theatre: 1 – 20 October
What did Australia’s foxiest morons get up to during the pandemic? It’s August 2021. Kath is up to pussy’s bow in sour dough. Kim’s been asked to work from home (though that happened before the pandemic). Sharon has had a severe reaction to all the hand sanitiser. Relive the uniquely Australian pandemic experience through the eyes of these uniquely Australian characters hilariously parodied by Art Simone (RuPaul’s Drag Race Downunder, Have You Been Paying Attention?), Thomas Jaspers (Granny Bingo, The Gays Are Revolting), Leasa Mann (Club Broadway, Thank Mollie’s It’s Friday) and Scott Brennan (skitHOUSE, Comedy Inc., Neighbours).
Fruitcake
The Motley Bauhaus – The Cellar: 1 – 6 October
This one-woman-show follows Fruitcake, a first year university student who slowly becomes involved with an alluring, off-putting class mate with whom she shares a penchant for awkward situations and films with unnecessarily long titles. But the more Fruitcake is invited into the world of her classmate turned maybe-something-more-I-mean-who-could-possibly-say; the more she realises there’s more than meets the eye to this girl, as well as something in Fruitcake’s own past she has to face if she has any hope of stepping forward into the future. This coming of age mystery will keep you guessing until the very end, unsure what to believe and who to trust.
HAVOC
Circus Oz, Collingwood: 19 – 20 October
A mass of acrobats, a mass of musicians, a mass of artistry, a mash-up of circus mayhem. Over seventy humans on stage. Uncategorised, uncorporatised, unhinged, unlike anything you’ve seen before. An arsenal of circus artists from near and far accompanied by a rocking circus band and the chaotic and majestic 40-piece Squawkestra! orchestrating the unforgettable. Two shows only – see it once, see it twice and you’ll never see it again. An unmissable Benefit Gala Extravaganza. Don’t miss it!
KINDER
Festival Hub: Trades Hall – The Square: 2 – October | Upstairs @ Floridia: 13 & 20 October
After an unexpected call from a local library derails the headline performance of a drag reading hour, the barely digestible and wholly intolerable Goody Prostate must scramble together a new act for a crowd of unruly children and their parents. But as they race against the clock to pull off a new number in time, they spiral into a chaotic interrogation of childhood, memory, and a long overdue examination of what it means to ‘grow up’. A response to the rise in reactionary politics around the exposure of children to queerness, join Goody as they read between the lines of the opposition and craft a timely reminder of the lesson to not judge a book by its cover (girl). The library is open. So sit down, be quiet, and listen up; there’s a new story to check out. Because sometimes, reading is what?
Fundamentalist.
Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence
Festival Hub: Trades Hall – ETU Ballroom: 2 – 4 October
Step onto the court of this contemporary turmoil that entangles the timelessness of Shakespearean drama with hot, sporty, girl power like you’ve never seen before. Join us for an electrifying experience of music, dance and theatre, giving you the biggest party this Fringe season. Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence is a cautionary tale where deadly ambition meets treacherous scheming when a Netball team of gutsy misfits train for their Inter-School Comp. A night you’ll never forget and 9 dance anthems you’ll never want to, this show is underpinned by the synth-pop genius of PROJECT BEXX, presented by Crash Theatre Co as they assemble an all-female powerhouse team of WA artists. See you on the court, b*tch!
Oyster Boy
Gasworks Arts Park: 15 – 19 October
A dark, absurd comedy about a boy who lives inside an oyster. Tonight, he is preparing to get shucked. But will he go through with it? Join Oyster Boy as he steels himself for a shucking. But what awaits him out there in the real world? Will he survive without his shell? This disturbing tale of transition is for anyone who has ever tried to fit in but failed. Created by proven comic geniuses Kyle Walmsley and Elizabeth Millington, Oyster Boy is a hilarious black comedy for anyone who has ever feared leaving their safe space.
SUGAR
Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Common Rooms: 16 – 20 October
Inspired by the obscene riches of Australia’s Sugar Baby culture, SUGAR takes on the bangers we love and smashes them into a poignant, sexy and hilarious story about being a kept Sugar Baby. Starring Tomáš Kantor (The Inheritance and Opera Australia’s Watershed: The Death of Dr. Duncan) SUGAR tells the story of a young Sugar Baby who encounters a super rich executive. Kept in a hotel penthouse, Sugar experiences every high-end pleasure, leading to obsession and a lust for a lifestyle they never knew they wanted. Featuring a symphony of pop-songs and live piano, SUGAR is the latest collaboration between director Kitan Petkovski (The Inheritance), designer Bethany J Fellows (In the Club), composer Rachel Lewindon (Orlando), lighting designer Spencer Herd (Romeo and Julie) and writer Ro Bright (Daffodils).
Vantage Points
Festival Hub: Trades Hall – ETU Ballroom: Saturday 12 October – 4.00pm
Experience a vibrant collaboration between musicians, scientists and composer as words and music propel you past climate crisis towards intersectional decolonised futures. This world premiere collapses arts/science boundaries as candid intersectional scientists and musicians serve climate truths and envision co-created futures. Composer/ecologist & Creative Climate Leadership alumni Na’im Fine Fine layers their exploratory music played by flute, sax, viola, double bass and drums with spoken words by First Nations, trans, POC, queer and neurodiverse enviro/climate scientists. Western science colonises knowledge and erases multi-systems wisdoms. Vantage Points ruptures this stranglehold, centring marginalised scientists’ insight stemming from their cultural communities and lived experience.
Werewolf
Arts Centre Melbourne – The Show Room: 16 – 26 October
From iconoclast Australian writer Van Badham (Banging Denmark, QAnon And On) and acclaimed director Gary Abrahams (Yentl, 33 Variations), comes the world-premiere of a pitch black, sly political-thriller set in contemporary Melbourne. In Werewolf, modern extremism and old Hollywood horror collide. A fascist speaking tour is arriving in Melbourne, and while government and media figures struggle to understand its impact, local radicals from the hard left and far right prepare for a bloody confrontation with excitement. As tensions build and violence looms, the line between who people are and who they pretend to be becomes blurred, leading to monstrous transformations. With twists, shocks and 80s horror film tropes, Werewolf is both darkly funny stage noir and serious social commentary on the new clash between old extremes.
The Melbourne Fringe Festival runs 1 – 20 October 2024. For more information, visit: www.melbournefringe.com.au for details.
Images: Apocrypha – photo by 3FatesMedia | BAD BOY – photo by Ponch Hawkes | Dolly Diamond – photo by Elliot Moody | Fountain Lakes in Lockdown: A Drag Parody Play (supplied) | Amanda King (Fruitcake) – photo by Hannah Jennings | HAVOC – courtesy of Circus Oz | Goody Prostate (KINDER) – photo by J Davies | Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence – photo by K Darius Photography | Kyle Walmsley (Oyster Boy) – photo by D. Preston | | Tomáš Kantor (SUGAR) – photo by Meagan Harding | Vantage Points – NASA image by Josh Stevens (Earth Observatory) and Norman Kuring (NASA Ocean Color group) | Werewolf (supplied)